Cannabis Culture

The Story of the Herb – Cannabis

8,000+ BCE Use of hemp cord in pottery identified at ancient village site dating back over 10,000 years, located in the area of modern day Taiwan. Finding hemp use and cultivation in this date range puts it as one of the first and oldest known human agriculture crops. As explained by Richard Hamilton in the 2009 Scientific American article on sustainable agriculture “Modern humans emerged some 250,000 years ago, yet agriculture is a fairly recent invention, only about 10,000 years old … Agriculture is not natural; it is a human invention. It is also the basis of modern civilization.” This point was also touched on by Carl Sagan in 1977 when he proposed the possibility that marijuana may have actually been world’s first agricultural crop, leading to the development of civilization itself (see 1977, below).

6,000 BCE Cannabis seeds and oil used for food in China.

4,000 BCE Textiles made of hemp are used in China and Turkestan.

2,737 BCE First recorded use of cannabis as medicine by Emperor Shen Neng of China.

2,000-800 BCE Bhang (dried cannabis leaves, seeds and stems) is mentioned in the Hindu sacred text Atharvaveda (Science of Charms) as “Sacred Grass”, one of the five sacred plants of India. It is used by medicinally and ritually as an offering to Shiva.

1,500 BCE Cannabis cultivated in China for food and fiber. Scythians cultivate cannabis and use it to weave fine hemp cloth.

700-600 BCE The Zoroastrian Zendavesta, an ancient Persian religious text of several hundred volumes refers to bhang as the “good narcotic.”

500 BCE Scythian couple die and are buried with two small tents covering containers for burning incense. Attached to one tent stick was a decorated leather pouch containing wild Cannabis seeds. This closely matches the stories told by Herodotus. The gravesite, discovered in the late 1940s, was in Pazryk, northwest of the Tien Shan Mountains in modern-day Khazakstan. Hemp is introduced into Northern Europe by the Scythians. An urn containing leaves and seeds of the Cannabis plant, unearthed near Berlin, is found and dated to about this time. Use of hemp products spread throughout northern Europe.

430 BCE Herodotus reports on both ritual and recreation use of Cannabis by the Scythians (Herodotus The Histories 430 B.C. trans. G. Rawlinson).

1090-1124 In Khorasan, Persia, Hasan ibn al-Sabbah, recruits followers to commit assassinations…legends develop around their supposed use of hashish. These legends are some of the earliest written tales of the discovery of the inebriating powers of Cannabis and the use of Hashish by a paramilitary organization as a hypnotic (see U.S. military use, 1942 below). Early 12th Century Hashish smoking becomes very popular throughout the Middle East.

1155-1221 Persian legend of the Sufi master Sheik Haydar’s personal discovery of Cannabis and his own alleged invention of hashish with it’s subsequent spread to Iraq, Bahrain, Egypt and Syria. Another of the ealiest written narratives of the use of Cannabis as an inebriant.

1171-1341 During the Ayyubid dynasty of Egypt, Cannabis is introduced by mystic devotees from Syria.

13th Century The oldest monograph on hashish, Zahr al-‘arish fi tahrim al-hashish, was written. It has since been lost. Ibn al-Baytar of Spain provides a description of the psychoactive nature of Cannabis. Arab traders bring Cannabis to the Mozambique coast of Africa.

1271-1295 Journeys of Marco Polo in which he gives second-hand reports of the story of Hasan ibn al-Sabbah and his “assassins” using hashish. First time reports of Cannabis have been brought to the attention of Europe.

1300 Ethiopian pipes containing marijuana suggest the herb has spread from Egypt to the rest of Africa.

1378 Ottoman Emir Soudoun Scheikhouni issues one of the first edicts against the eating of hashish.

1526 Babur Nama, first emperor and founder of Mughal Empire learned of hashish in Afghanistan.

1600-1700 Use of hashish, alcohol, and opium spreads among the population of occupied Constantinople. Hashish becomes a major trade item between Central Asia and South Asia.

1753 Linnaeus classifies Cannabis sativa.

1764 Medical marijuana appears in The New England Dispensatory.

1776 Kentucky begins growing hemp.

1794 Medical marijuana appears in The Edinburgh New Dispensary.

1798 Napoleon discovers that much of the Egyptian lower class habitually uses hashish. Soldiers returning to France bring the tradition with them, and he declares a total prohibition.

1800- Marijuana plantations flourished in Mississippi, Georgia, California, South Carolina, Nebraska, New York, and Kentucky. Also during this period, smoking hashish was popular throughout France and to a lesser degree in the US. Hashish production expands from Russian Turkestan into Yarkand in Chinese Turkestan

1809 Antoine Sylvestre de Sacy, a leading Arabist, suggests a base etymology between the words “assassin” and “hashishin” — subsequent linguest study disproves his theory.

1840 In America, medicinal preparations with a Cannabis base are available. Hashish is available in Persian pharmacies.

1893-1894 The India Hemp Drugs Commission Report is issued. 70,000 to 80,000 kg per year of hashish is legally imported into India from Central Asia.

1906 In the U.S. the Pure Food and Drug Act is passed, regulating the labeling of products containing Alcohol, Opiates, Cocaine, and Cannabis, among others.

Early 20th Century Hashish smoking remains very popular throughout the Middle East.

1910 The Mexican Revolution caused an influx of Mexican immigrants who introduced the habit of recreational use (instead of it’s generally medicinal use) into American society.

1914 The Harrison Act in the U.S. defined use of Marijuana (among other drugs) as a crime.

1916 United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) chief scientists Jason L. Merrill and Lyster H. Dewey created paper made from hemp pulp, which they concluded was “favorable in comparison with those used with pulp wood” in USDA Bulletin No. 404. From the book “The Emperor Wears No Clothes” by Jack Herer the USDA Bulletin N. 404 reported that one acre of hemp, in annual rotation over a 20-year period, would produce as much pulp for paper as 4.1 acres (17,000 m2) of trees being cut down over the same 20-year period. This process would use only 1/7 to 1/4 as much polluting sulfur-based acid chemicals to break down the glue-like lignin that binds the fibers of the pulp, or even none at all using soda ash. The problem of dioxin contamination of rivers is avoided in the hemp paper making process, which does not need to use chlorine bleach (as the wood pulp paper making process requires) but instead safely substitutes hydrogen peroxide in the bleaching process. … If the new (1916) hemp pulp paper process were legal today, it would soon replace about 70% of all wood pulp paper, including computer printout paper, corrugated boxes and paper bags. However, mass production of cheap news print from hemp had not developed in any country, and hemp was a relatively easy target because factories already had made large investments in equipment to handle cotton, wool, and linen, but there were relatively small investments in hemp production.

1915-1927 In the U.S. cannabis begins to be prohibited for nonmedical use. Prohibition first begins in California (1915), followed by Texas (1919), Louisiana (1924), and New York (1927)

1919 The 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution banned the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcohol and positioned marijuana as an attractive alternative leading to an increase in use of the substance.

1924 Russian botanists classify another major strain of the plant, Cannabis ruderalis.

1926 Lebanese hashish production is prohibited.

1928 Recreational use of Cannabis is banned in Britain.

1930 The Yarkand region of Chinese Turkestan exports 91,471 kg of hashish legally into the Northwest Frontier and Punjab regions of India. Legal taxed imports of hashish continue into India from Central Asia.

1933 The U.S. congress repealed the 21st Amendment, ending alcohol prohibition; 4 years later the prohibition of marijuana will be in full effect.

1934-1935 Chinese government moves to end all Cannabis cultivation in Yarkand and charas traffic from Yarkand. Hashish production become illegal in Chinese Turkestan.

1936 The American propaganda film Reefer Madness was made to scare American youth away from using Cannabis

1970 Passage of the Controlled Substances Act

How Cannabis Infused Body Products Can Help You

Cannabis-infused body products work because of the body’s own endogenous cannabinoid system, which forms the biological basis for marijuana’s healing power. When you apply an infused lotion, oil or salve to help relieve neuropathic pain, itchiness and other ailments, the cannabinoids in the topical product bind to CB2 receptors in your skin, which absorb them in a way that helps cells regenerate, allowing wounds to heal faster and easing painful chronic conditions like eczema and psoriasis. Cannabis-infused topical products cover a wide range of conditions.

​Depending on the carrier oil used in formulating the body-care product, the cannabinoids penetrate deeply enough into the skin to relieve muscle pain and arthritis inflammation, but not so deep that THC enters the bloodstream or central nervous system. For this reason, you suffer no psychoactive effects.

​The anti-inflammatory properties present in a multitude of cannabinoids are remarkable; cannabis topicals are therefore very helpful for anyone recovering from injuries and for people who suffer from ailments such as rheumatoid arthritis and lupus. Topicals help reduce the time it takes to heal from injuries, and promote the functionality of joints and reduce nodule formation.

​Cannabis topicals essentially combine the effects of antibiotic ointment with the healing effects of a salve to produce lovely products that can even help heal burns, eczema, rashes, fungus, and annoyances like warts and blemishes. The uses of topicals are still being explored, but the overwhelming amount of anecdotal evidence of their efficacy in treating all of the ailments listed, and more, is undeniable.

​Some healing or relieving effects of topicals:

anti-inflammatory effects

analgesic effects

relaxing effects on muscles and other body tissues

muciparous decongesting effects

regenerative effects on body tissues

Marijuana is increasingly being prescribed and used for a variety of medical reasons, including pain relief. But its use is controversial, and in the United States—as in every other country in the world—it continues to be illegal under federal law. Despite this fact, over half the states in the U.S. have approved the prescribing of marijuana for medical purposes.

​Cannabis sativa, the Latin name for marijuana, is an herb that has been used for thousands of years to treat many different symptoms. It’s also one of the 50 fundamental herbs used in traditional Chinese medicine (an alternative therapy). The active ingredient in medical marijuana, also known as medical cannabis, is tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). The herb cannabis/marijuana is labeled as a Schedule 1 Substance, indicating that (legally) it has no known medicinal properties or uses.

​Interestingly, there is a synthetic version of THC called Marinol. Marinol is a Schedule III substance and has been prescribed for cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. Also worth noting is that research has found that, compared to other pain drugs, cannabis takes less of a toll on the liver, kidneys and possibly other organs.